


Summer of '69

by CastielsLieutenant



Series: Playlist Pages [3]
Category: Supernatural
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-27
Updated: 2014-04-27
Packaged: 2018-01-20 23:29:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1529774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CastielsLieutenant/pseuds/CastielsLieutenant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam's best and brightest memory</p>
            </blockquote>





	Summer of '69

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the Bryan Adams' song, Summer of '69

It is the best and brightest of Sam's memories.

The year Dad had gone hunting a week before his birthday and he'd tried not to feel hurt or angry, but failed at both. Startlingly, this was how it all began. Because his brother isn't the kind to let things go... especially when Sam mentioned that he'd never really had a proper birthday part. Dean would tell him stories, sometimes, of the birthday party their mother had thrown for him. There was cake and balloons, Dean's friends came over and they sang him Happy Birthday. Sam always watched Dean's face when he talked about these precious memories; a light would touch his eyes and his face would become years younger, unburdened by all that they had been through.

There was so little joy left for them these days.

But Dean knew how much Sam has wanted a birthday party. Just one. Something to bring that light out in his eyes like it did for Dean. So Dean had snuck around behind his back, talking to the few friends that Sam had managed to make at the new school their father had dropped them into. One day, he disappeared totally and came back looking entirely too pleased with himself. If there is one thing Sam will always know about Dean, it is that if Dean is smirking, he is up to something.

The morning of his fourteenth birthday was grey, bleak and generally the kind of day that would make most people want to roll over and go back to sleep. But Dean was at the foot of his bed, tugging at an exposed foot and grumbling at him to get his lazy ass out of bed, it was his birthday, he should be up and awake and opening his presents.

That's where the day started – Sam opening up a  _Young Scientist A to Z of Helpful Plants_ , a new pocket knife and a box of Lucky Charms (“What? You said you liked them!”). After Sam had spent a good forty minutes peering over the textbook, Dean had grabbed him by the elbow and hoisted him off the bed. There was, apparently, more to see and do.

Dean took Sam everywhere that day. To the arcade, where he totally owned his big brother's ass in some shoot-em-up game. To the local diner, where Sam was allowed to choose whatever he wanted and Dean didn't even grumble when it was more green than grease. To the lake, where Sam walked along the sea wall and plopped his feet in the water, while Dean watched him from his vantage point near the Impala. Later that night, Dean took off for half an hour, only to return with Sam's friends. He drove them all to the drive-in, bought the popcorn and when the movie was over, took them all back to the hotel, where Dean retrieved a sad looking chocolate cake from the Impala's trunk. Two wobbly candles sat precariously in the icing as Dean revealed his last surprise.

An old, battered guitar slid out from under his bed and made it to Dean's lap, where it sat and was strummed as Sam watched his big brother play and his friends sing Happy Birthday to him. When it was time to blow the candles out, Sam wished. He'd never tell what he wished for, but if this was the only birthday party he was ever going to have, he was going to make the wish a good one.

It is a singular point in time that Sam remembers with absolute clarity, something that the passing years cannot dim, nor the trauma he has suffered erase. That one day when Dean wasn't weighed down by his fear and doubt, when the smile on his little brother's face was better than saving the world. After that day, Sam truly understood the passion his brother spoke with.

It isn't much, but it is his.

It is the best and brightest of Sam's memories.


End file.
